2015 Southeast Asian Games

28th Southeast Asian Games

Host city	Singapore
Country	Singapore
Motto	Celebrate The Extraordinary
Nations participating	11
Athletes participating	4370
Events	402
Sports	36
Opening ceremony	5 June 2015
Closing ceremony	16 June 2015
Officially opened by	Tony Tan Keng Yam President of Singapore
Officially closed by	Tony Tan Keng Yam President of Singapore
Athlete's Oath	Lin Qingyi Netball(captain)[1]
Judge's Oath	Mohammad Azhar Yusoff Singapore's rugby referee[1]
Torch lighter	Fandi Ahmad and Irfan Fandi[1]
Main venue	Singapore National Stadium
Website	2015 Southeast Asian Games
<  2013 2017  >

The 2015 Southeast Asian Games (Malay: Sukan Asia Tenggara 2015; Chinese: 2015年东南亚运动会), officially known as the 28th Southeast Asian Games (or simply 28th SEA Games), was a Southeast Asian multi-sport event hosted by the city-state of Singapore.^[2][3][4] It was the fourth time the country hosted the games and the first time since 1993. Singapore previously also hosted the games in 1973 and 1983.

Singapore was originally awarded rights to host the Southeast Asian Games in 2011 after several delays from 2007 due to the construction of the New National Stadium. The games were held from 5 to 16 June 2015, although several events had commenced from 29 May 2015. Around 4370 athletes from 11 participating nations participated at the Games, which featured 402 events in 36 sports.^[5][6][7] The games was opened and closed by Tony Tan Keng Yam, the President of Singapore at the aforementioned stadium.

The final medal tally was led by Thailand, followed by host Singapore and Vietnam. Several Asian, SEA Games, and national records were broken during the games. Though there were several controversies, the Games were deemed generally successful with its effective management of cost spent to host the games, arrangement of public transport and games promotion and with the rising standard of competition amongst the Southeast Asian nations by the reduction of non-Olympic sports.

Organisation

Host city

Singapore's selection as the host of the 28th Southeast Asian Games of 2015 was announced in 2011 during the 26th Southeast Asian Games, held in Indonesian cities Palembang and Jakarta. Singapore had previously been nominated to host the event in 2007 and 2013, but turned down both opportunities citing costs associated with the construction of the new Singapore Sports Hub.

Development and preparation

The Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee (SINGSOC) was formed on 28 June 2012 to oversee the staging of the event.

Steering Committee members of the Games^[8][9]

Position	Name	Designation
Chairman	Mr Lawrence Wong	Acting Minister, Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth. Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Communications and Information
Members	Mr Chan Chun Sing	Minister, Prime Minister's Office
	Ms Indranee Rajah	Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Law
	Mrs Carmee Lim	Founder and President of Aoede Music Enterprise
	Mr Low Teo Ping	Vice-President, Singapore National Olympic Council
	Mr Masagos Zulkifli	Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Foreign Affairs
	Mr Mohamed Abdul Jaleel	Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Mini Environment Service Group
	Mr Valerio Nannini	Managing Director, Nestle Singapore Pte Ltd
	Ms Annabel Pennefather	Vice-President, Singapore National Olympic Council
	Mr Brian Richmond	Radio Personality, MediaCorp Pte Ltd
	Mr Saktiandi Supaat	Head, FX Research Team, Global Markets, Global Banking, Maybank
	Mr Manu Sawhney	Director, Manchester United Limited
	Mr Seah Moon Ming	Executive Director and Group CEO of Pavilion Energy Pte Ltd and Pavilion Gas Pte Ltd
	Mr Richard Seow Yung Liang	Chairman, Singapore Sports Council
	Dr Tan Eng Liang	Vice-President, Singapore National Olympic Council
	Ms Jessica Tan Soon Neo	Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore
	Mr Tan Kian Chew	Group Chief Executive Officer, NTUC FairPrice Co-operative Ltd
	Mr Leonard Tan	Founder and Chief Executive Officer, PurpleClick Media Pte Ltd
	Mr Stanley Tan	Chairman, National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre
	Mrs Josephine Teo	Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Transport
	Mr Teo Ser Luck	Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Mayor, North East District

Venues

The 2015 Southeast Asian Games used a mix of new, existing and temporary venues. Given the city-state's compact size, most venues were pre-existing public-sporting facilities located in the suburban heartlands which were reverted to public use after the games. No major retrofitting work were done in most venues as most had been used to host major multi-disciplinary events such as the 2010 Youth Olympic Games.

At the centrepiece of the activities was the Singapore Sports Hub which was completed in mid-2014. Incorporating the new 55,000-seat national stadium, it hosted most of the events.

A games village was not built. Instead, a "village in the city" concept saw athletes and officials housed in 20 hotels in downtown Singapore. Besides being physically near to the Singapore Sports Hub, it was hoped that it will add vibe to the city and reduce post-games costs in converting a dedicated games village to other uses.

The 28th Southeast Asian Games had 30 venues for the games.

Cluster	Competition Venue	Sports
Kallang Cluster	Singapore Sports Hub
	Singapore National Stadium	Opening & Closing ceremony, Athletics, Football
	OCBC Arena Hall 1	Netball, Basketball
	OCBC Arena Hall 2	Fencing, Volleyball (Indoor)
	OCBC Arena Hall 4	Billiards & snooker
	Singapore Indoor Stadium	Table tennis, Badminton
	OCBC Aquatic Centre	Aquatics: Diving, Swimming, Synchronised swimming, Waterpolo
	Other
	Kallang Squash Centre	Squash: Singles & team
	Kallang Tennis Centre	Tennis
	Kallang Cricket Field	Archery
	Kallang Softball Field	Softball
	Kallang Practice Track	Athletics: Marathon
Singapore Expo	Expo Hall 1	Boxing, Sepaktakraw
	Expo Hall 2	Judo, Pencak silat, Taekwondo, Wushu
Marina Cluster	Marina Bay	Traditional Boat Race, Sailing: Keelboat
	Marina Bay South	Cycling
	Marina Channel	Canoeing, Rowing
Other
	Bedok Reservoir	Water Ski[10]
	Bishan Sports Hall	Gymnastics
	Bishan Stadium	Football[10]
	Jalan Besar Stadium	Football
	Choa Chu Kang Stadium	Rugby sevens[10]
	East Coast Park	Athletics: 20 km walk, Triathlon
	ITE Central	Floorball
	National Sailing Centre	Sailing
	National Shooting Centre	Shooting (Outdoors)
	Orchid Country Club	Bowling
	Padang	Pétanque
	Sengkang Hockey Stadium	Field hockey
	Sentosa Golf Club	Golf
	Turf Club Riding Centre	Equestrian
	Tanglin Club	Squash: Jumbo double
	SAFRA Yishun	Shooting (Indoors)

Public transport

Given the existing extensive public transport network already in place, there is no games-specific major infrastructural development to support it. The clustering of venues is aimed at easing the traffic flow, bus and Mass Rail Transit service for games athletes and officials were provided.

Volunteers

The organisers estimated that about 15,000 volunteers are needed to successfully host the games. Volunteer recruitment began in late 2013, and by February 2014, about 5,000 volunteers have signed up.^[11] This number swelled to over 17,000 by February 2015, and a volunteers night event was held at Universal Studios Singapore to launch the sports volunteers brand name as "Team Nila" and to thank the volunteers who have signed up with free shows at the venue. Amongst the pool of 17,000 volunteers, 35% came from the community, while 65% were from corporations in support of the games.^[12]

Ticketing

A total of about 790,000 tickets were put on sale from February 2015 online, at the Singapore Indoor Stadium and at SingPost outlets. To encourage public participation in the games, it was announced on 28 January 2015 that 18 of the sports will be free for spectators, while the other 18 are kept at relatively affordable levels of between S$5 to S$20.^[13] By 15 April 2015 some sports such as swimming and fencing were selling fast, while silat and sepak takraw were much less popular.^[14] Organisers reported that ticket sales were pass 70% for most sports by 27 April, with fencing and swimming being the most popular at 85 and 70% tickets sold respectively, while rhythmic gymnastics, silat and wushu have also sold over 70%. Billiards and snooker, equestrian, sepak takraw, taekwondo, and artistic gymnastics have sold about half their tickets. Rugby and judo have sold 30%, while table tennis has sold only 20%.^[15]

Priced between S$5 to S$20, priority sales for the opening and closing ceremonies tickets for those who registered theirs interests in 2014 began on 15 January 2015, while sales for the general public began on 22 January 2015. In February 2015, tickets to the opening ceremony were going at over seven times their original value on unauthorised websites, despite 40% of the tickets still available at that time.^[16] By March 2015, tickets to the opening ceremony were sold out.^[17]

Countdown

During the closing ceremony of the 2013 Southeast Asian Games, the SEAGF Flag was formally handed over to Singapore from Myanmar. This was followed by a song and dance section highlighting Singapore as the next venue.

On 27 June 2014, a series of festivities were held at the Singapore Sports Hub, including a fireworks display, to mark the one year countdown to the games. The Sports Hub Community Open House was held in conjunction with the launch to introduce the new sports facilities to the general public.^[18]

The countdown to the games began on 15 February 2014 with a launch party at the Gardens by the Bay, where the logo, theme and mascot were also introduced.^[19]

800 Nanyang Polytechnic students organised a major countdown event on 11 April 2015 to mark the final 50 days in a few days, where about 4,000 people turned up to attend a concert and a sports carnival.^[20]

On 16 April 2015, the 50-day countdown began with various organisations stacking a number each through a video tribute. This included: London School of Business and Finance Singapore (49), Compassvale Primary School (48), Development Bank of Singapore (47), National Kidney Foundation (46), CWT Limited (45), Park View Primary School (43), Sport Singapore (42), 41st Battalion, Singapore Armoured Regiment (41), and Corporation Primary School (40).^[21]

Security

The principal agency to ensure the security of the games is the Singapore Police Force, supplemented by the Auxiliary Police Forces. The organisers singled out security as one of their major concerns ahead of the games, with worries over unforeseen security breaches which may occur across any of the venues, some of which are easily accessible by the public.^[22]

Medals

A total of 1,313 medals were awarded during the games. The design of the medals were unveiled on 27 April 2015. Designed by Joys Tan from Sport Singapore, they feature the Games' logo on one side, and the Singapore Sports Hub on the reverse. Each medal will be 80mm in diameter and will each weigh 183 grams. It was also announced during the media brief that smaller versions of the medal, in the form of medallions, will be given to all spectators of the closing ceremony.^[23]

Costs

The games was budgeted to cost SGD325 million (USD287 million) but eventual cost came to SGD264 million. There were concerns the cost would exceed budget, as had happened when Singapore hosted the Youth Olympics in 2010.^[24] In contrast, the cost of organizing the 2013 games, which was hosted by Myanmar, was estimated to be SGD400 million.^[25]

Torch relay

The torch relay took place on 4 June 2015, the eve of the games' opening ceremony began with the torch lit at the Marina Bay Promontory, and went past Clifford Square, Merlion Park, Esplanade Plaza, the Art Science Museum and end at Marina Bay Sands, where the flame handover ceremony to the Games officials took place.^[26]

Marketing

Motto

The motto of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games is Celebrate the Extraordinary. It represents the connection of individuals, communities and countries to their own dreams beyond competing, winning or overcoming defeat and the inspiration of the soul and spirit inside each people of Southeast Asia.

Logo

The logo of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games is an image depicts a winning athlete crossing the finishing line with his/her arms raised in victory represents the potential that exists in every participating athletes. The five figure of the sport events competed represents the diversity of sports featured in the Games, the strength and the skills of the athletes. The palette of colours represents the exciting moments of the games and Sport as a tool of uniting people of the region regardless of their language, belief and colours. Overall, it represents the unity of Southeast Asian people in the spirit of the games. The logo also depicts the Southeast Asian Games Federation logo and the word "28th SEA Games". The word "Singapore 2015" on the finishing tape represents Singapore as the host of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games.

Mascot

The mascot of the 2015 Southeast Asian Games is a lion named Nila. The name comes from Sang Nila Utama, the founder of Singapura. Nila has a red mane and heart-shaped face and is described as courage, passionate and friendly. He wears either his signature tracksuit or blue sporting attire, depending on the occasion.^[27][28]

Songs

A special compilation album titled Songs of the Games was produced by veteran music director Sydney Tan and released on 3 March 2015. It features the three official theme songs: "Unbreakable" written by Amir Masoh and performed by Tabitha Nauser, "Greatest" by Daphne Khoo and "Ordinary" written by Amir Masoh and performed by The Sam Willows. The other songs included: "You're Wonderful" performed by Tay Kewei, Gayle Nerva and Tabitha Nauser, "Flags Up" written and performed by The Sam Willows, "Champion" written by Charlie Lim and performed by The Sam Willows, "Still", "A Love Song-Unbreakable", "Forever", "You're almost There", "Dancing on the world", "Colours" and "Reach".^[29][30]

Sponsors

A total of 100 sponsors, comprising 4 Main sponsors, 10 Official sponsors, 27 Official partners and 59 Official supporters sponsored the 2015 Southeast Asian Games. The broadcasting rights of the main sponsor MediaCorp is owned by MediaCorp TV.^[31]

Main sponsors

The Games

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on Friday, 5 June 2015, beginning at 20:00 SST (UTC+8) at the National Stadium in Singapore, the first major opening ceremony for a sporting event in the new venue.^[32] Organised by the Singapore Armed Forces, which has also been responsible for the annual National Day Parade, they were supported by a creative team with Beatrice Chia-Richmond serving as Creative Director. The ceremony was helmed by more than 5,000 performers and volunteers and supported by 3,500 soldiers. Given the enclosed nature of the stadium, extensive use of an aerial system to allow suspension and movement of performers and props are possible. Floor projection are accomplished using 160 multimedia high-definition projectors.^[33]

The ceremony begins with the band orchestra performance and historical lookout of previously hosted Singapore Southeast Asian Games and footage of people lineup distance countdown to Singapore National Stadium followed by arrival of the VIPs, Tony Tan Keng Yam and Lee Hsien Loong. The hosts of the ceremony are Nikki Muller, Chua En Lai and Sharon Au. The National Anthem of Singapore is played first as the national flag of Singapore was raised, followed by countdown projection, the volunteers from Singapore Soka Association performance forming the map of Singapore with nature theme. This is accompanied by the traditional dances of Singapore's main races.

Nila, the mascot apparently leaped down in the stadium with a hanging parachute after the video footage of the mascot. Athletes of participating nations paraded into the stadium followed by parade of the Southeast Asian Games Federation games flag and the games edition flag, the late Lee Kwan Yew footage about the 2015 Southeast Asian Games, welcoming speech of Lawrence Wong, and declaration of games opening by Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of Singapore. Flags of the games edition is raised to the song "Reach" performed by local songwriter Dick Lee and the Methodist Girls’ School choir. Athlete's and judge's oath are taken by Lin Qingyi, Singapore's netball player and Azhar Yusoff the rugby judge and referee respectively.^[34][35]

These are followed by 5 acts, which are mass performances performed by students all over Singapore, volunteers from Singapore Soka Association and notable Singapore celebrities. The acts are Act One - DNA, Act Two - Imagination, Act Three - Youth Expression, Act Four - Sports And The City which include appearance of Singapore top athletes such as Joseph Schooling, and gratitude to coaches all over Southeast Asia and Act 5 - Singapore in the Stadium where a gigantic model of DNA emerge slowly from the center of the stage. Soon after the last act, a group of athletes passes the flame one after another from a dragon boat and into the National Stadium before passed on to Fandi Ahmad, who finally lit the cauldron with the flame with his son, Irfan Fandi that night accompanied with a bunch of fireworks.

Closing ceremony

The Games had its closing ceremony held on Tuesday, 16 June 2015, from 20:00 SST (UTC+8) at the National Stadium in Singapore. The ceremony begins with a countdown footage video followed by hosts of the ceremony enter the stadium in a car who are also hosts of the games opening ceremony. Singapore president and the other VIPs then enter the stadium and after that a video about the games' wonderful moments is played. Medal Winners of every participating nations paraded into the stadium onto the stadium floor to the beat of music - Remix of the Songs of the Games played through the stadium, followed by the video of the games volunteers, Team Nila.

Team Nila then entered the stadium and danced to the music played. Ng Ser Miang awarded Lawrence Wong and Singaporean SEA Games President, Tan Chuan-Jin the Olympics spirit award. Tan Chuan-Jin then delivered a closing speech, in which he includes an emotional quote, paying tribute to all victims of the 2015 Sabah earthquake in which many Singaporean primary school students from Tanjong Katong Primary School died and all the national flags of the participating nations and the games flags been flown at half-mast on 8 June 2015 during the games.^[36] The Singapore president declared the games closed with Charlie Lim played the song as the games flags were lowered and the flame of the cauldron extinguished. A group of torch bearer surrounded the cauldron lighter which sends off the firework.

The SEA Games responsibilities was officially handed over to Malaysia, host of the 2017 Southeast Asian Games, in which Khairy Jamaluddin, Minister of Youth and Sports of Malaysia receive the flag of the Southeast Asian Games Federation as its symbol. The national anthem of Malaysia was played as the National Flag of Malaysia was raised. A 10-minute Malaysian segment performance: "Diversity in Motion" (Malay: Majmuk dalam Gerak), was performed by Malaysian dancers with Monoloque and Najwa Mahiaddin sang "The Birth of a Legend" (Malay: Lahirnya Lagenda) on the stage. The performance was divided into three parts: "Birth", "Rooted", and "United".^[37][38]

A Singapore farewell segment performance is later performed with a parade of colonial era, peoples, symbols, memorable landmarks, government policy and 1993 Southeast Asian Games stamps and objects, brought back the nation's historical memory in the past 60 years. The ceremony concludes with a party with music spun by Dutch DJ Ferry Corsten^[39] and a performance by local fusion Jazz group The Steve McQueens.^[40]

Participating nations

An estimated total of 4490 athletes (about 2610 men, 1880 women) from 11 nations competed at the 2015 Southeast Asian Games. The number of athletes competed for each nation is shown in parenthesis. However, the information maybe incorrect at source.

Sports

The first 30 sports were announced by the Singapore National Olympic Council on 10 December 2013 on the sidelines of the 27th SEA Games in Myanmar. It announced then that there was room for as many as eight more sports.^[41][42] On 29 April 2014, the final six sports, namely boxing, equestrian, floorball, petanque, rowing and volleyball were added to the programme. Floorball will feature in the event for the first time after being a demonstration sport in the 2013 edition.

In its selection of events, the organising committee indicated their desire to set a model for subsequent games in trimming the number of "traditional" sports to refocus on the SEAG's initial intent to increase the level of sporting excellence in key sports. Hence, despite room for up to eight traditional sports, only two, floorball and netball, were included in the programme. Amongst the other 34 sports, 24 are Olympic sports and all remaining sports are featured in the Asian Games.

The 2015 Southeast Asian Games programme was featured 402 events in 36 sports and disciplines. The number of events in each discipline is noted in parentheses.

¹ – not an official Olympic Sport.
² – sport played only in the SEAGF.
³ – not a traditional Olympic nor SEAGF Sport and introduced only by the host country.

Calendar

Medal table

A total of 1313 medals comprising 403 gold medals, 401 silver medals and 509 bronze medals were awarded to athletes. The Host Singapore's performance was their best ever yet in Southeast Asian Games History, and were second only behind Thailand as overall Champion. An additional gold medal was awarded at the Rhythmic Gymnastics individual all-round event.^{[37][43][44][45][46]}

Key

  *   Host nation (Singapore)

2015 Southeast Asian Games medal table

Rank	NOC	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Thailand (THA)	95	83	69	247
2	Singapore (SIN)*	84	73	102	259
3	Vietnam (VIE)	73	53	60	186
4	Malaysia (MAS)	62	58	66	186
5	Indonesia (INA)	47	61	74	182
6	Philippines (PHI)	29	36	66	131
7	Myanmar (MYA)	12	26	31	69
8	Cambodia (CAM)	1	5	9	15
9	Laos (LAO)	0	4	25	29
10	Brunei (BRU)	0	1	6	7
11	Timor-Leste (TLS)	0	1	1	2
Total (11 NOCs)		403	401	509	1313
Source:website Medal Standings

Broadcasting

Key

  *   Host nation (Singapore)

2015 SEA Games Broadcasters rights in Southeast Asia
IOC Code	Country	Broadcast network	Television network	Radio network	Digital network
BRU	Brunei	Radio Televisyen Brunei Kristal-Astro	RTB1 Astro Arena	Hot FM One FM
CAM	Cambodia	Radio and Television of Cambodia	Television of Cambodia	Radio of Cambodia
INA	Indonesia	Surya Citra Media	SCTV Indosiar Televisi Republik Indonesia Nexmedia	Radio Republik Indonesia
LAO	Laos	Laos National Radio and Television	Lao National Television	Lao National Radio
MAS	Malaysia	Media Prima Berhad Astro Radio Television Malaysia (RTM)	TV3 Malaysia (Some Games, News reporting) TV9 Malaysia (Some Games, Highlights) Astro Arena (Some games) TV1 Malaysia (News reporting only) TV2 Malaysia (News reporting only) 8TV Malaysia (Men's Football Malaysia vs Laos Delayed Telecast)	Hot FM Fly FM One FM
MYA	Myanmar	Myanmar Radio and Television	Myanmar Television Skynet MRTV-4 MRTV	Myanmar Radio
PHI	Philippines	Sports5[47]	TV5 AksyonTV	Radyo5	sports5.ph
SIN	Singapore	MediaCorp TV	MediaCorp TV12 okto (Main Channel) MediaCorp TV Channel U (Some games only) MediaCorp TV Channel 5 (Opening Ceremony, Today at the Games and Closing Ceremony only) MediaCorp News Channel NewsAsia (Reports and Highlights) Singtel TV	MediaCorp Radio 938LIVE	YouTube ([48])
THA	Thailand	The Television Pool of Thailand (TPT)	BEC-TV Channel 3 RTA-TV Channel 5 BBTV Channel 7 Modernine TV NBT channel	MCOT Radio Network, NBT Radio
TLS	Timor-Leste	RTTL	Televisão Timor Leste	Radio Timor Leste
VIE	Vietnam	VTC VTV	VTC1 VTC3 VTV3 VTV6 HD	Voice of Vietnam

Concerns and controversies

• In the Pencak silat men's class F (70–75 kg) event, Secretary–General of the Malaysian National Silat Federation (Pesaka) Datuk Megat Zulkarnain Omardin was dissatisfied with what he said was an unfair ruling by the event's chairman of the jury in the semifinal match between Mohd Fauzi Khalid of Malaysia and Muhd Nur Alfian Juma'en of Singapore, the host nation.^[49] At the final moments of the last round, Muhd Nur Alfian made a controversial drop on Mohd Fauzi which was later deemed to be valid after consultation with the chairman as well as with the panel of five jury members. Megat Zulkarnain said that after watching video replays of the drop, the drop should not have counted as Mohd Fauzi was pulled down instead of being dropped legally according to the regulations, and thus Malaysia should have won the match instead. He felt that the eventual decision to award the match to Singapore's Muhd Nur Alfian was just so as to maintain the dignity of the home nation's pencak silat, which was widely criticized by many nations.^[49]
• During the closing ceremony, spectators were shuffled from gate to gate in order to enter through a gate with fewer people resulting in them not being able to watch the ceremony. Some spectators were also told that the stadium was full. SINGSOC has made an official statement that they will offer a full refund to those who purchased a ticket and were unable to be seated, as well as getting the supporters’ medallion.^[50][51][52]

See also

• 2015 ASEAN Para Games

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to 2015 Southeast Asian Games.

• 2015 Southeast Asian Games Official Website (in English)
• SEA Games 2015 medal tally (in English)
• SEA Games 28 (in Vietnamese)
• The Straits Times microsite
• Official Results
• Official Results 2
• My Active Sg Archived Results

Preceded by 2013 Naypyidaw, Myanmar

28th Southeast Asian Games 2015 Singapore

Succeeded by 2017 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia